2nd Trimester Came and Went

This pregnancy is seriously flying by!  All of a sudden I'm 30 weeks along and still have no idea what we're going to name this baby!  Here are all my pictures and some of my thoughts:

20 weeks (started using the rubber-band trick with my pants):

22 weeks:

24 weeks: Somewhere between 22 and 24 weeks I began to look pregnant to strangers (depending on what I was wearing and how recently I had eaten.)  How do I know this?  Because that's when patients at the hospital started asking me how far along I am.  People don't ask things like that if they're not sure. 

26 weeks: This is when I could no longer sleep on my stomach.  A real bummer for me.  I also had my glucose test and started going to the Dr. every 2 weeks.  Am I really far enough along for appointments every 2 weeks?  Yikes.

28 weeks:  I got my Rhogam shot, always fun. 

30 weeks:

"Oh yeah" moments:
-Crazy, vivid dreams.
-Red splotches on my skin.  Mainly on my cheeks and upper arms.  I totally forgot I had these with Berkley.  You can't feel them, my skin is still smooth, and they don't itch or hurt or anything.  They are just there.  And they go away after having the baby.  Apparently this is a common thing.
-Cramps in my feet, especially at night.
-Sleeping discomfort altogether.  (You can really tell when 3rd trimester hits, everything gets uncomfortable.)
-A little bit of heartburn, mainly at night. 
-Baby hiccups.  I think I started feeling them around 27 weeks.

Differences with this pregnancy:
- I had A LOT of back and hip pain start in my 2nd trimester.  (Probably due mostly to this car accident and aggravated by pregnancy.)  Luckily my auto insurance is covering chiropractic visits and massage which has made a HUGE difference. 
-Berkley was a powerful kicker.  This baby is more of a wiggler/flip-flopper.  Isn't it funny how they always start wiggling around like crazy right when you lay down to go to sleep?  I don't mind though, I like to lay there and feel her move. 
-Last time I felt like I was showing when I wasn't.  I thought everyone could tell I was pregnant when they really couldn't.  This time I'm the opposite.  Maybe it's because the time has gone by so quickly and I don't realize how far along I really am.  It catches me off guard every time people ask me about it because I'm surprised they can tell.  I also find myself being really self-conscious about my growing belly, almost embarrassed.  I know I shouldn't be, and I don't want to sound ungrateful for having a life grow inside of me, but for some reason that's how it is. 
-Weight gain.  With Berkley, my weight gain was totally by the book.  About 3 lbs the first trimester and about 1 lb a week after that for a total of about 30 lbs.  Even though my starting weight with both pregnancies was the same, I had only gained 1 1/2 lbs at 20 weeks and now I've gained about 10 lbs at 30 weeks.  The Dr. isn't worried about it because the baby is growing right on track so I'm not worried either, it's just weird. 

It's definitely starting to get uncomfortable but I hope my third trimester takes it's sweet time moving along because I actually am enjoying being pregnant and I'm not ready for it to end quite yet.  I also thought I'd share a couple of my favorite things that I've discovered this time around.
-The body pillow.

For my first  pregnancy I arranged pillows under my belly, between my legs, behind my back, etc.  It was such a chore to flip over and rearrange all the pillows.  I'm not the kind of person who spends money on a special pregnancy pillow so I took a normal body pillow from my parents' house that wasn't being used and it has been so wonderful!  Prevents hip pain and is much easier to flip over with. 

-Loved by Heidi Klum skinny jeans

These are seriously the best maternity pants ever!  I found a tan pair on clearance for $12 at the beginning of my pregnancy and fell in love with them.  (Normally $40 at Motherhood Maternity.)  They're so comfortable I might even wear them post-baby.  I'm planning on buying at least one more pair, maybe two. 

-Green smoothies

Ok mine don't turn out this green, probably because I use dark colored berries.  Berkley and I have smoothies for breakfast about 4 times a week and we love it.  I throw in a handful of greens (usually spinach), some frozen fruit/berries, some fresh fruit/berries and some fruit juice or vanilla almondmilk.  So yummy and so good for you!

Berkley Funnies

This little girl constantly makes us laugh.  Since my memory is so poor I want to periodically write down some of the things she says/does that catch me off guard.  Here are some from the past couple of months:

• She sings the clean up song when we put toys away except her lyrics are, "Clean up, clean up, every day."
• On one of our first snow days she was playing in the snow with Merrisa and would say "thank you!" every time a snowball was thrown at her.
• Lately she's been really concerned about my safety.  She tells me at least once a day, "Don't fall mommy."  Maybe I look off-balance?  Anyway, I was washing some dishes and she said, "Don't fall in the sink mommy."
• A conversation she had with Zack recently:

          Z: "What's your favorite color?"
          B: "pencils"
          Z: "What's daddy's favorite color?"
          B: "homework"

• One morning she started singing the alphabet in her sleep.
• One day in early November I let her pick out a trick-or-treat after lunch.  After she ate it she wanted another one.  I said, "No, just one."  To which she desperately replied, "Just two?! Just two?!"  Are we already at a negotiating age?
• We took her to In-N-Out for the first time and as we were driving home afterward she said, "Thanks for eat dinner with me!"
• She noticed her fingers looked weird after her bath one night so I told her they were pruny.  A few days later I was laughing and my nose scrunched up.  She pointed at it and said, "pruny nose!"
• She knows our first names.  Occasionally she'll throw my name in at the end of a sentence and it always catches me by surprise.  One night I was making dinner and Berkley was trying to get a toy to work in the other room.  She got frustrated and yelled, "What the heck, Cowie!"  
• I was buckling her in the car seat and told her "you're cute" to which she replied, "yeah, and smart."
• We recently made the switch to a twin bed.  When she wakes up she'll get out of bed and knock at her bedroom door till someone comes to get her.  (She can open doors but for some reason she thinks she's stuck in her room.)  The other day she started knocking at the door about 10 minutes after I put her down for a nap.  When nobody came she said, "Mommy?....... Daddy?......."  No response so she started yelling, "Come back here people!  Come back here people!" 
• She pointed at the new HD antenna we got for Christmas and asked, "What's that?"  I told her it's an antenna and she asked, "How much that cost?" 

Novembeard

Zack shaved before the month was over so he would look presentable going to the temple.  We got a few snapshots first though.

The Replacement

After this tragic accident, we found ourselves car shopping again.  We browsed quite a bit and test-drove a few vehicles.  We actually had the chance to buy almost the exact same jetta that we had.  But instead, for about $5,000 less we decided to try this one out.

It's a 2007 rabbit.  This will be Zack's 6th Volkswagen.  First rabbit though.  What can we say, there's just something about German engineering.  The front end and interior are exactly the same as the jetta, it just has a hatchback instead of a trunk (which ends up fitting better in our short garage.)  I'm just happy to have 4 doors and heated seats again.  Hopefully this one lasts a little longer eh?

Potty Training

 I might have thought twice about having another child had I started potty training Berkley before getting pregnant again.  It's just one of those things you can't fully understand until you experience it firsthand.  I think it's also one of those things that you forget how terrible it was over time so you're willing to try it again a couple years later.  Here's how it's been for us:

I used the 3-day potty training method that was recommended to me by several people.  Berkley was nearly 22 months old and showing that she was more than ready.  By the end of the third day I was physically and emotionally exhausted, I felt like there was pee all over our house, and Berkley had a rash so bad that she refused to even sit on the potty anymore.  I was ready to give up and try again in a couple months. 

On day 4 I put her back in diapers so we could go to church and get things done.  She kept telling me every time she peed and asking to go to the potty.  She wouldn't let me quit. 

After a couple more days she was perfectly good at peeing in the potty and excited to get her smarties afterward.  The obstacle now was going #2.  For whatever reason she was terrified to go in the potty.  She would just go and then tell me, "I pooped in a panties. Yucky."  This lasted for a couple weeks until I just couldn't take it anymore.  When I could tell she was trying to hold it in I undressed her and we hung out in the bathroom and read books until she couldn't hold it any longer and I held her over the toilet while she went.  I gave her all the praise I possibly could, we called family members, and she got a sucker.  After a couple days she was no longer going in her underwear but trying to poop in the potty every half hour so she could get a sucker. 

Now we just have a couple more obstacles to work through.  First is that she refuses to go in the big potty so if we're in public or at a house that doesn't have a little kid potty, I put a diaper on her just in case.  Depending on how long we're gone, the diaper is usually dry when we get home.  I figure she'll get over her fear of the big potty eventually. 

The other obstacle is while she's sleeping.  Call me crazy but I got tired of changing bedding twice a day.  And really, she wakes up dry from her naps most of the time and in the morning sometimes but I think I'll tackle this one after we move her to a big bed and she can get up and go when she needs to instead of being trapped in her crib. 

Overall, it was gross and exhausting and is a slower process than I hoped for.  But it's pretty impressive that she's at least gotten this far before turning 2 and I'm sure we'll work through the other things in time.